The Gift
by symbiotic
Summary: Something is bugging Mio and Perrine seems to be the only one who notices. After investigating and finding out what is troubling her commanding officer, Perrine seeks help Mio out and show her true colors to her Major. MioxPerrine
1. Suspicious Behavior

Alright, an attempt at something new! I've been dying to write a Strike Witches fanfic ever since the series ended recently, so I figured I would get started on one. Though I have many AU ideas in mind for the series, I just wanted to do one that was a bit more canon before I start doing what I do best with it. Doing a canon story for something so short was a bit of a challenge, but once I got my ideas straight, it proved to be quite easy. So thank you for putting up the Strike Witches sub category under manga/anime and now on with the story. Hope you like it!

From,  
Symbiotic

* * *

It just seemed to be another day so far at the base of operations on the Britannian coast. Just like most other days on the base, the day began with the typical return of Orussian witch Sanya Litvak from the daily night patrols that had to be conducted to keep things around Britannia safe. Like many other mornings, her return signalled the beginning of a whole new day for all of the witches of the 501st joint fighter wing. Shortly after Sanya returned, the morning bugle call began to slowly awake each and everyone of the nine witches (except for Sanya) from their previous night's deep sleep to get ready for their day's duties.

Even though Sanya had been out the whole night and others were still groggingly getting up, there was one witch that had already been up for a few hours in the morning. That witch was the 501st second in command and the first ever witch to sucessfully utilize the Striker Unit that had been developed by Dr. Miyafuji to combat the menace of the neuroi. Working on her swordsmanship form with gracefully strokes for hours on end, Major Mio Sakamoto had been up for two hours before all other witches had even thought of getting up. She functioned like this every morning, the purpose being to keep herself in the absolute best shape that she possibly could for the next bout of combat that the 501st could be caught up in against the neuroi. Only when she heard the sound of the morning bugle call did Mio decide to sheath the katana that she carried into battle time and time again to go in to greet her other witches. Normally not else was on her mind at this time, but this was different. Today was a special day for Mio, and the thought of that special day made things a bit different for her to say the least.

"I just hope no one does anything today for me," Mio thought in her mind. "It's not worth it and I don't want it to happen anyway. Besides, it's not as important as other things that have happened around here lately."

As she walked in and thought about what today was, Mio ceased to pay attention for a bit of what was going on around her. Not knowing what she was getting closer to as she continued to walk towards the main structure of the airbase she lived on for the time being, Mio continued to walk blindly and thought nothing of it until she was stopped by an unmoveable force. Feeling herself ram into someone else and stumbling back a bit, Mio rubbed her head a bit and then looked up at who she had bumped into, but it didn't take long for her to figure out who she had ran into.

"M-major S-sakamoto!" Flying Officer Perrine Clostermann exclaimed. "I'm terribly sorry Major, I should have payed attention to where I was going. Please forgive me for my incompetence."

Hearing Perrine's pleas for forgiveness made the twenty year old witch from Fuso laugh, much to the perplexment of the fifteen year old witch from Gallia. Perrine was used to keeping things ever so formal and tight to the utmost degree, a trait that was shared among witches Minna Dietlinde Wilcke, Gertrud Barkhorn and even Mio herself, but none of them held it to the degree that Perrine did. Many saw it as rather hilarious at times, and this was one of those times that one of them found Perrine's uptightness and formality, confusing Perrine since the major she had come to admire so much was normally much more stern then she was now.

"Don't worry about it Perrine," Mio assured the blond Gallian witch. "It's nothing. I wasn't paying attention either myself."

Those words furthered perplexed Perrine. Mio always payed attention to things, or at least always seemed to be paying attention to things around her at all times. Hearing Mio admit that she wasn't paying attention to something and that was the reason that the two had collided as they walked was something that definitely bamboozled Perrine. Curious as to find out more, Perrine asked a question that would help bring her towards admitting something that she never thought she would ever tell Mio Sakamoto.

"Is everything alright Major Sakamoto," Perrine asked considerately. "You normally seem much more alert."

"Yes," Mio stated stoically, in a way that Perrine typically saw from Mio. "Everything is fine. Now go on, as you were Flying Officer Clostermann."

Mio then walked away from Perrine. On her mind was the fact that she had just lied to Perrine, one of her most trusted comrades and one of the strongest witches there was. She had lied to her about what was on her mind, when inside she was being mercilessly torn apart by it. On one side she really wanted to tell someone, any one of the witches, what was on her mind about today. But on the other side, and the side that was keeping the other one surpressed for the time being, she didn't want to say anything since she seemed to feel it was a waste of time. Perrine on the other hand was even more complexed by the words of her major, and now felt the need to investigate the cause of what she saw as distress among her commanding officer.

* * *

"Alright alright, breakfast is served," Eila Ilmatar Juulitainen proclaimed sharply as she stepped out with a plate with various meats, cheeses, and breads from behind the counter joining the dining room and kitchen together. "Come on now, get it while it's still fresh now, it took me all morning to make these."

"What was it that you made anyway Eila san?" Yoshika Miyafuji asked as she walked up to get her breakfast from the platter that Eila had put out onto the counter.

"Traditional Suomos breakfast dish that's what Miyafuji!" Eila stated proudly. "See back home, what we do for breakfast is take a piece of bread, swipe margerine on it, and then take some kind of meat and cheese and just eat it like this. Here let me show you."

Reaching down and taking some ingredients off the platter, Yoshika watched carefully as Eila picked up a butter knife and quickly spread margerine across the bread with speed and preciscion that made Yoshika look on in awe. Then with equal amounts of speed, Eila placed a slice of ham with some provolone cheese on top of the bread with the margerine and then held began to bite into it with a smile. The whole process was seen by Yoshika as simple yet amazing that Eila was so graceful yet so fast with it. The fact that it also was exotic prompted Yoshika to start making her own sandwich. The one she made was with Turkey breast and American cheese that had been brought in thanks to the efforts of Charloette "Shirley" Yeager. Placing both of these slices on a piece of white bread and then placing the open sandwich on a plate, Yoshika carried her breakfast back to the table and began to munch on it with delight, finding she liked the taste just as much as Eila appeared to.

"Wow Eila san this is amazing," Yoshika said happily. "Arigato Eila san."

"Don't mention it Miyafuji," Eila told her with a smile. "You make breakfast for the rest of us so much that it's only fair that I make some for you."

"Arigato Eila san," Yoshika said with an equally great smile, continuing to eat her sandwich with delight, watching the others in the room go up to the plate and get some sandwiches for themselves to eat. Along with Yoshika, there was also Sergeant Lynette Bishop, Lieutenant Colonel Minna Dietlinde Wilcke who served as commander of the 501st Joint , and Officer Francessca Lucchinni eating breakfast in the room with Yoshika and Eila. Each one of them all made their own respected open faced sandwiches and took their seats at the table to begin eating.

"What did you put on your sandwich Lynne chan," Yoshika asked curiously, looking at her new best friend's open faced sandwich.

"I put on roast beef and swiss on mine," Lynette told Yoshika with delight as she swallowed the first bite of her sandwich. "I really like it, it's very good. Thank you Eila."

"I put Sopressata and Ricotta on mine and placed it on Italian bread," Francessca told them happily. "Ricotta is my favorite cheese, ringraziarla for putting it out Eila. This is molto saporito!"

"I have no idea what you just said but I guess you like it so that's good," Eila told Francessca, making another sandwich for herself. "Hey Minna, what did you put on yours?"

"I put mine on rye, and it's Zungenwurst with Limburger cheese," Minna said with a smile, earning a look of disgust on the face of Eila that Yoshika, Lynette, and Francessca looked at with with curiosity.

"What's wrong Eila san?" Yoshikas asked inquisitively.

"You look very ill all of the sudden," Lynette pointed out. "Is it because of what Minna put on her sandwich?"

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Minna told them with a smile as she munched in on the sandwich. "It's traditional Karsland meat and cheese that I have grown up on, so obviously I'm going to like it."

"That still doesn't excuse the fact that what your eating is still nasty," Eila said in disgust. "Ah whatever, everyone's got their own preferences I guess."

"But what is it that you're eating that would make Eila so disgusted Commander Minna?" Lynette inquired, a bit excited to know what her commanding officer was eating that would make Eila look like she was going to puke.

"Well Lynette," Minna began to say carefully. "Zungenwurst is..."

Before Minna could say anything, the door to the dining room slammed open to reveal a very breathless Perrine Clostermann standing in the doorway. Panting heavily and sweat pouring from her forehead, everyone in the room looked on in curiosity as Perrine walked into the room and stood at the edge of the table, earning glances from everyone that to her looked rather disrespectful. Angered by the strange looks and lack of attention that she was getting, Perrine slammed her fist violently on the table, making the whole surface shake and get the attention of everyone at the table who was there.

"What is the meaning of this Officer Clostermann," Minna demanded as she stood up from her chair. "Can't you see we're trying to enjoy a meal?"

"My sincerest apologies Commander Minna," Perrine said hastily, giving a shaky salute to her superior officer. "But I have some urgent news about Major Sakamoto!"

"Major?" Eila said with her mouth full as she ate her sandwich. "What's wrong with the Major? She never has any problems."

"How dare you talk to me with your mouth full Eila!" Perrine shouted in a rage. "Don't you have any manners at all?"

"Yeah but I'd rather not use them around you four eyes," Eila mocked, continuing to talk with her mouth full and eat her sandwich as Perrine looked on in disgust.

Deciding quickly that it wasn't worth it, Perrine turned back to the other witches who were eating their open faced sanwiches and earned attentive glances from all of them, especially Minna and Yoshika. Those two had the most attachement to Mio, Minna being Mio's commanding officer and one of her best friends and Yoshika being Mio student and close friend as well. Lynette gave a bit of a concerned look, being the caring person that she was. Though she did know Major Sakamoto and trained with her and Yoshika a lot, she did not feel the attachement that Minna and Yoshika did to Mio. Francessca and Eila simply continued to eat, but continue to keep their ears open to hear what Perrine had to say, which she quickly began to tell of before the attention she had from the others was lost.

"Well today, when I got up and saw the Major training like she normally does, she seemed to be out of focus!" Perrine told them rapidly and distressingly, making the others look at her even more attentively. "Her movements seemed stressed and her form seemed really off balance and she wasn't correcting it. It was if she just wanted to get through the exercise as fast as possible without doing anything else! When does Major Sakamoto ever act like that?"

"Well maybe she was trying out a new form for her training?" Lynette proposed. "Major Sakamoto is always looking for ways to better refine herself for combat."

"Lynne chan is right Perrine san," Yoshika pointed out. "Are you sure that what she was doing was really out of focus!"

"I'm not done yet Miyafuji," Perrine shouted violently, earing an aghast look from the fourteen year old with from Fuso. "Don't you know anything about talking in turn?"

"She didn't know now please continue Perrine," Minna ordered calmly, but inside she was getting slowly annoyed with the pestering behavior that Perrine was exhibiting to her. Minna was given no time to dwell on it though, for Perrine began to talk once again of the Major that was the 501st second in command.

"Well when I went out to go see what was going on," Perrine stated, "I physically ran into Major Sakamoto. Now I know I was not paying attention very well myself, but Major Sakamoto would never run into someone! She always would dodge the oncoming advance so that way she would not be injured at all."

"She probably made a mistake," Minna replied back to Perrine, earning an enraged look from the Gallian witch as she stood up to put her plate in the kitchen sink. "Look, this is a waste of time, I got a lot work to do today and I bet the major is fine."

"But something is bugging her and I can tell!" Perrine shot back at Minna violently. "I demand permission to investigate!"

"Listen Perrine," Minna said as she walked into the kitchen and placed her dish in the sink, where Eila picked it up and began washing it. "People aren't perfect, not even you and the Major. I am very sure that nothing is wrong with her at the moment. If something was, I would know."

"Well you don't know because I know something is and I demand permission to investigate," Perrine stated again with the same rage as before. "If I can prove something is wrong we can help the Major out, and wouldn't you want to do that?"

"Commander Minna can Yoshika and Lynette play a game with Shirley, 'Trude and Erica?" Francessca asked. "We've been training so hard the past few days and we really could use a break."

"Sure that's fine," Minna happily said with a smile, temporarily shutting Perrine out much to the Gallian girl's annoyance. "You three go off and play now."

The three younger girls ran out of the room led by Francessca, leaving on Perrine, Minna, and Eila still in the area where the witches ate every morning and evening. Eila was still eating her sandwich in one hand while preparing the sink for her to wash the dishes that Yoshika, Lynette, and Francessca had put in the sink for her to watch. Perrine was still following Minna out of the kitchen, even after Minna had put her dish away.

"Officer Clostermann what do you want from me?" Minna asked exasperatingly.

"I just am just looking out Major Sakamoto's well being like you do Commander Minna," Perrine assured her. "I'm not doing anything to hurt her, I just want to see if she is alright. Please, let me investigate. I'll be doing a huge service for you since you would not have to do it yourself."

Minna thought about it for a few seconds. Being concerned with the well being of everyone who served under her, Minna was always concerned about the health each witch in the 501st Joint Fighter Wing. That meant keeping a close watch on both mental and physical health so that way if they did need treatment then she could get it for them quickly and with ease. Even though she suspected nothing was wrong with Mio, she did have no viable reason not to believe what Perrine was saying about the major being the sign of something bothering her. But she also knew that Mio was very keen and any investigation on her would not be able to be able to keep a low profile for long, and if Mio found out about what was going on with the investigation she could be angry. Though a large part of her did want to tell Perrine to go away and stop annoying her, she still was a bit concerned about Mio's well being since it could affect her combat performance. So with a heavy sigh, Minna gave Perrine her answer.

"You can investigate the Major just so long as you keep your intention on the low side and you do not hurt the Major," Minna told Perrine, making her conditions very clear. "Understood?"

"Merci Merci Commander Minna," Perrine said with delight. "I'll make sure I get to the bottom of this and you won't be disappointed."

"Then you better get started," Minna ordered Perrine in a happy tone, making Perrine run out of the dining room quickly to go further investigate the plight of her major. Once she was gone, Minna let out a hefty sigh and frowned. "What kind of mess have I just caused?"

"Either you have just allowed a very big one to be caused," Eila pointed out. "Or you can help assist Major Sakamoto."

"Lets just hope it's the latter," Minna said with a roll of her eyes. "I really don't feel like cleaning up any messes today. As you were Eila."

"Yes Commander Minna," Eila replied back, continiously scrubbing the dishes that were in the sink as Minna walked out of the dining room and left her alone. In her own mind, Eila worried a bit about what Perrine was going to do, but didn't care too much for it. It was a side thought in her mind, and one that she just kept out while she continued to work on cleaning the dishes.


	2. Curiosity Almost Killed The Cat

Wow, I had no idea people would like this story. I'm having fun writing it and I'm surprised people are actually reading it. I know this is an ever grown category of fanfiction, but I promise you that this will be the best Strike Witches story to date. Hope you like the second chapter of The Gift. Feel free to criticize it all you want.

From,  
Symbiotic

* * *

Perrine felt ecstatic. Inside she felt that she was truly something to benefit the 501st, and she wanted nothing more then to gain attention and recognition from the superiors. To her, that was a sign that not only she was considered important to the 501st but also that her status as a noble girl from Gallia was being recognized. There was also another reason that made Perrine happy that she was able to investigate the cause of her commanding officer's apparent distress. That reason was more personal to Perrine, and tied directly to Mio herself. It was something that Perrine desperately did not want to show or let anyone find out about. Fearing that someone would use it against her in the future if they did find out about it, Perrine never dared to let her greatest personal secret be known to anyone but herself. It was a secret that conflicted with the moral upbringings and romantic values of Perrine, but it was one that she could not deny herself from. That secret drove Perrine on in her investigation to find out why Mio was in some form of apparent distress, and was critical in her finding out what was truly going on.

"Where to start?" Perrinne thought as she walked through the hallways of the base, trying to think of ways to find out of how to solve Mio's problems. "Oh where to start where to start where to start!"

This made Perrine rather flustered. She had not thought about much where she would start looking for Mio's cause of distress. She could always observe Mio from afar, but that presented two problems. One was that Perrine would always have the possiblity of being noticed by Mio, which was something that the twenty year old witch from Fuso and the second in command of the 501st would have no trouble doing at all. Even if she had not noticed her on her own, Mio could always use the magic that she used so often in combat to find a neuroi core to find out where Perrine was. Two was the fact that Perrine and Mio were often separate for large portions of the day. Even if Perrine liked being near the major, the fact was that her and Mio Sakamoto were often separate for such long periods that it was often impossible for them to meet up at times other then when they were eating or on a sortie for various reasons. Though she often would witness the Fuso major training Yoshika Miyafuji on an almost daily basis and would watch her then, that was probably the only other time that Perrine intentionally saw Mio other then combat.

Her only option seemed to have to go and find out info on Mio for herself. This presented even more problems. If Perrine was caught by Mio digging around for her personal belongings, she could not only be ostracized by Mio permanently but she could also receive a severe reprimand from Minna. Under one of Minna's many rules on the code of conduct with the witches, they were not allowed to go through each other's personal belongings without permission to do such. Though it was a rule that Minna had difficulty enforcing at times, going through one's own personal belongings could result in a reprimand that Minna said "No one wanted to know about". Being someone who followed, or at least tried to follow, every last rule that was put forth for her to follow, Perrine hesitated at first at the thought of invading Mio's own personal belongings. But Minna said that rules did not matter when other's well being was in jeopardy, and to her Mio's well being was in jeopardy if she did not find out what was getting to her, and Perrine knew something was getting to Mio Sakamoto. Unlike the secret that she struggled to keep hidden from everyone, she could not deny that fact to herself, that Mio Sakamoto was being exasperated by something inside that she was not telling anyone, and Perrine was desperate to find out what was going on. That's when a thought entered Perrine's mind that she never thought she would think of doing up until now.

"I know that it's risky," Perrine thought in her mind as she contemplated her plan to get to the bottom of Mio's apparent distress, "but it's all I can do. I've got to find out what's wrong with Major Sakamoto!"

With that, Perrine began to briskly walk down the halls with her plan in mind. She would start her plan off in the first place and Mio began her day and ended her day in late every evening. Wanting to check there first because she knew that next to Mio's office, it was the place where most of the witch's personal belongings were, she figured looking there would be the logical place to find some kind of clue as to why Mio was apparently distressed. If she was going to find any evidence to use in her favor in proving to Minna that she was upset, she knew that it would definitely be in that room. But as Perrine walked, she realized another problem. At first she did not think much of it, but as she got to the wing of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing's base, it became much more apparent to Perrine. It was a problem that even though she came here at least twice a day she still had not been able to solve, and that was the problem of which was which. Perrine did not know which room was Mio's or how to distinguish that room from all the others.

"I guess I'm to have to try and look on my own," Perrine thought as she went up to one of the doors and opened it up carefully, keeping it quiet in case anyone was on the other side of the door.

What she found was a room that to her was absolutely filthy and disorganized. Dirty clothes, food wrappers, and cans were thrown amiss all over the floor haphazardly. The trash can in the room was overloaded to the brim with food waste, cans, and various other items that belonged in there and not on the floor. The bed's sheets were stained in various places, the sheets were all about it's top haphazardly and not tucked in in at all, and the pillow for the bed was on the floor, across the room from where it should be on top of the bed. To Perrine, who tried to keep everything ever so tidy and up to the most exacting standards, this was simply unnacceptable. At first she thought that this was the room of Yoshika, who she had grown quite jealous of due to her attachement to Major Sakamoto. In her mind, she knew now that she had something to blackmail the young Fuso witch with since she knew that Minna and Mio always enforced a strict policy of organization and cleanliness among the witch's belongings. Wanting to get more supposed dirt on Yoshika, Perrine began to step in the room. Stepping only two steps into the room before closing the door, Perrine soon found out one of her feet was not on stable and solid ground. Taking another step, the Gallian witch was soon thrown up into the air in a backflip and then landed right down again on the cold, hard, and dirty floor of the room with a loud thud. Scrambling to get back up and brush herself off, Perrine could not believe that Yoshika was allowed to be disorganized, and couldn't wait to hear Minna and Mio berate her for such. But when she looked down onto the floor, she saw something that dispelled her belief that this was Yoshika's bedroom.

"What's this?" she asked as she picked up a black object held by a multicolored ribbon off of the floor, holding it in her hand. At first Perrine did not recognize it, but then she realized she knew what it was. It was the Knight's Cross of Valor and Bravery, an award only given to soldiers who made up the military of Karsland. Once she knew that, then Perrine was able to quickly deduce in her mind who's room this was.

"You would think that Karsland's little 'Ultra Ace' would be a bit more organized," Perrine thought to herself arrogantly as she threw the award behind her as she walked out, closing the door to the room and then walking to another door. When she opened the door she had walked to, she didn't even need to look inside. All she needed to do was open the door to find a massive red bra on the doorknob to know who's room it was.

"She's really that big?" Perrine thought to herself as she held the bra in her hands shakingly. "Wow I guess she's not bragging when she says she has the biggest around here. No one else is that big!"

Putting the bra back on the doorknob and closing the door, Perrine then went to another door randomly in the hallway that made up the wing she was walking in.When she got to the door, she first went down to turn the doorknob, only to find something that she had not found in the other rooms. This door, unlike all of the others that she had encountered so far, was locked. In complete disbelief of what was going on, Perrine kept on trying to turn and jiggle the doorknob so it would open, but to no avail. Growing impatient, Perrine began to elbow the door to try to get it down. While she could always use her magic to blow the door off it's hinges, that would leave behind evidence much to incriminating for her to bare. So she tried to elbow it open, but the door stayed firm. Exasperated after a few times, Perrine backed up to take a breath and then begin to hit the door again. But before she could start, she saw the doorknob turn and began to quickly scramble to get herself up. As the door opened up and Perrine thought she would be seen by none other then the person she was looking for, her mind soon went to ease. All she found was the 501st own little piano playing, night flying, radio tracking, Orussian witch standing in the doorway in nothing but some white panties and a white bra. She had found the room of Sanya Litvak.

"What are you doing Perrine?" Sanya asked in a yawn, her eyes barely open enough to see Perrine.

"Oh," Perrine said sheepishly. "It's you Litvak. Well I wasn't doing anything I was just..."

"Why were hitting my bedroom door so hard?" Sanya said quietly. "Do you need some help with something?"

"No," Perrine said sharply. "Just, go back to bed Litvak and be ready for night patrol when the time comes."

"Alright," Sanya said in another yawn. "Dos Sedonia Perrine."

With that, Sanya walked back into her room and closed the door as she did such. Perrine simply got up and began to walk to another door again, this one she hoped wasn't locked or occupied by anyone like Sanya. As she walked down the hall to another door, Perrine felt a bit of exasperation boiling inside her. Even if she didn't know who's room was who's and she didn't really pay attention to it very much, she still thought that finding Mio's room should not have been as troublesome as she had found it was being so far. As she reaches this next door though and turned the knob to find the door was unlocked, Perrine opened the door and turned on the lights. Once she did that, she smiled in delight and cheered herself on the inside.

"See, you could do it all along Perrine," she said to herself as she walked into the now lit bedroom she was looking for. "Like a proper noblewoman of Gallia, no task is too hard for you Perrine Clostermann."

Perrine looked around the room of Mio Sakamoto. By what she saw, she judged that it was supposed to look just like her old home in Fuso. The bed was a traditional Fuso style bed, on the floor with some of Mio's clothes folded neatly at the side and made to standards that made Perrine jealous. On the wall were various pictures of Fuso caligraphy and pictures of people who must have known Mio back home. On one wall was a rack of swords, the same ones that Perrine saw Mio train with day in and day out, and fly into combat with every time they engaged the neuroi. A bookshelf with various texts of all kinds was up on the right side of the room and the dresser was on the left. Nothing in the room was where it wasn't supposed to be. There was nothing misplaced, nothing disorganized, everything seemed just perfect. It was just like Perrine had dreamed of, and she questioned herself for a second if she wanted to really disturb the tranquility and serenity of such a place.

"I know this is wrong," Perrine though to herself, "but it's for the Major's own good."

Perrine then began to look around the room for clues. She first checked the book shelf and the nightsand near Perrine's bed, looking for any signs of a possible diary that the major kept. But she found nothing of the sort. Most of the books Mio had were simple books on training and Fuso history, nothing anywhere near the lines of a diary and nothing Perrine could even read to begin with. So she began to look around in other places, such as Perrine's dresser. But she found nothing in there other then Mio's clothes. It felt a bit naughty of her to be touching Mio's clothes and looking for things that would find why Mio was upset on the inside, but she knew that it could be the only way she'd find anything as to why Mio was upset. Not finding anything though in the dresser, Perrine then put the clothes she took out back and then closed the drawer. Distraught as to where to find something, Perrine sat against Mio's wall and thought for a second.

"There has to be something in here that can tell me something," Perrine thought to herself. "There has to be, there's no other way around it. Something has to be in this room that can tell me something!"

Thinking even harder, Perrine saw through her glasses something that she had noticed before. It was a calendar, a standard roman calender, across the room from where she was sitting. Even more perplexing to Perrine was what she saw on the calendar. One of the days was circled by what appeared to be red ink from a marker and had some kanji under it. Curious as to what this was, Perrine got up off the floor and went over to look at what she was seeing in the room. Approaching the calendar and picking it up off the wall, Perrine looked down at the calendar to find out anything about it.

"That's strange," Perrine said to herself. "The date circled by Major Sakamoto is today. Could something be bugging Major Sakamoto about today?"

Perrine continued to ponder the possibilties about such, but she knew that she would not be able to truly understand what this day meant to Mio Sakamoto unless she could read the kanji on the calendar, something Perrine knew she did not know how and knew that only two people on the base knew how to do. Those two people were Mio herself, and the one that she had brought from Fuso most recently and that Perrine detested the most right now because of her apparent ever growning attachment to Mio. That person was Yoshika Miyafuji, and knowing that Mio would not tell her herself what was on the calendar. Only Yoshika could tell her, and Perrine hated that fact but accepted it.

"It's for Major Sakamoto," she told herself as she walked out of the room with the calendar in her hands. "It's for Major Sakamoto's own good. Now where could Miyafuji be?"

* * *

Outside the main compound of the 501st base, in a field that was flat and clear of any plants but the grass that held the soil together, white lines had been laid down to make a diamond like shape on the ground. On that diamond were six of the witches in the 501st, playing a game that most of them had never heard of until they joined the 501st. Playing it now for yet another time, they knew that this one of the few moments that they would probably have that could be bg genuinely fun for all of them, and they were very happy they had the privilege to play the game that they were playing now. That game, was baseball.

Hailing from The United States of Liberion, baseball was yet another aspect to life in the 501st that Flight Lieutenant Charlotte E. Yeager, the lone witch in the 501st from Liberion and the fastest person in the world for the time being, brought to the 501st. EAch of them brought some cultural aspects from their homeland, be it food, a game, or something else that they could have brought along, and Charlotte brought along probably more then many of the other witches. The game of baseball was something she greatly enjoyed playing and watching back home in Liberion. Missing the game dearly, Charlotte asked Minna one day if she could teach the other witches to play baseball and make a baseball diamond in her free time. Minna agreed to the proposal, stating that the witches could always use something fun to do in such troubled times. The only condition was that the game had to be abandoned when ordered to go into combat of any kind or when she requested such, and Charlotte agreed to such with not one bit of trouble. Importing bats, gloves, catchers gear, chalk for baselines, baseplates, baseballs, and even baseball caps with each respected witch's national symbol on them from Liberion, Charlotte got all eleven of the witches to play the game with her at some period or another. This time though was one time that Charlotte was greatly waiting. Today she was playing with her best friend Francessca Lucchini at the catcher's mount, the "Ultra Ace" Erica Hartmann at first base, 501st marksman Lynette Bishop at second base, and up and coming witch Yoshika Miyafuji on third base. Charlotte was on the pitcher's mound with a baseball at her hand, and batting was none other then the one witch she could consider a rival in the 501st, fellow Flight Lieutant and the second highest scoring witch in the 501st, eighteen year old Gertrud Barkhorn of Karsland.

"Alright now things are going to get good," Francessca said happily from behind home plate in her catcher's gear. "Now batting, cleanup hitter of Karsland, the great and mighty 'Trude Barkhron!"

"Thanks for the introduction," Gertrud said with a slight smirk as she walked up to the plate with a Louisville baseball bat in her hands. "Mach schnell Liberion girl, I'm getting old here."

"So says the one from Karsland who has her panties in a bunch," Charlotte snickered slightly as she rolled the baseball in her hands, making Gertrud look at her with an even more serious and determined face then before.

"Just throw the ball already," Gertrud ordered as she straightened out her baseball cap with one hand and got in her proper stance to hit the ball.

Meanwhile Charlotte got in the correct stance, watching Francessca for hand signs that would tell her what pitch to throw to Gertrud. After watching the Romagnan girl's hands closely, Charlotte gave Francessca a firm nod and then began the process of throwing the ball. Winding up with her arm and stepping back with her feet, Charlotte rapidly motioned her arm forward in the proper motion that she had learned long ago from both family and friends back in Liberion. Once she did that, she released her fingers from the ball and let it spin right through the air towards Gertrud. Keeping a firm eye on what she was seeing coming towards her, Gertrud waited till she felt was just the right moment, and then placed all her strength in one fluid motion. Despite this however, all she hit were the air particles in front of her. Francessca on the other hand felt the strong impact of the ball hit into her catcher's glove, which came in with a loud "thwack".

"Strike one," Francessca said. "Alright Shirley, one down two to go."

"Schlagen Sie den Ball 'Trude," Erica said as she hit her hands in the baseball glove Charlotte had given her. "Make it go faster then Shirley did when she broke Mach 1!"

"That'll be the day Erica," Charlotte scoffed. "Alright you ready for this one?"

"Mach Schnell Liberion girl," Gertrud ordered, tauntingly waving the bat as she waited for Charlotte to pitch the ball to her.

Charlotte looked once again to Francessca's hands, which were making a series of handsigns that that the Liberion girl watched very closely. After deducing the hand signs like any good pitcher in a baseball game should, Charlotte placed the baseball glove behind her with the hand carrying the ball, positionging her fingers out of the prying eyes of Gertrud. Once she felt she had got the correct grip on the ball with her fingers, Charlotte moved her legs forward and then brought her arms back. With great might, she thrust her body forward and then released the ball from her fingers. Sailing through the air at high speed, Gertrud watched the ball from the plate initially go straight but then begin to sink to a lower level, so low that she knew that she thought it went out of the strike zone. But when it hit Francesscas' glove, she got a different response.

"Strike two!" Francessca cheered happily. "Only one more to go before you get four in a row Shirley. And by the way 'Trude, that was a sinker pitch and it was in the strike zone."

"I see," Gertrud spoke, annoyed by the fact that she hadn't noticed such but quickly getting back into position to hit the ball again.

"Come on one more chance here 'Trude," Erica said encouragingly. "Blow this one clear away!"

Gertrud nodded firmly to Erica and then looked back at Charlotte. The Liberion girl had her hand behind her back again, this time getting ready to give her a pitch that she was sure the 18 year old witch from Karsland would never be able to hit. It was a variation and her best variation on the first pitch and the easiest pitch she had given Gertrud so far, but it would make things very tricky for the witch from Karsland if she was not careful. Moving her fingers around behind her back, Charlotte found the correct grip and then positioned herself in the windup position. Watching closely from the plate, Gertrud could tell something big was coming and readied herself to swing at whatever Charlotte was going to throw at her. Watching Charlotte wind up and then begin her motion, she paid even more careful attention and tightened her stance as Charlotte threw the ball from her hands. Moving through the air at high speed, the split seam fastball came towards Gertrud at a speed that left the eighteen year old witch amazed that such a pitch was even possible. But that didn't stop her from bringing her bat down and swinging, connecting with the ball and making a loud crack rip through the air as the baseball began to soar through the air towards left field, and towards Yoshika Miyafuji.

"Alright 'Trude," Erica cheered happily as Gertrud dropped the bat and began to quickly sprint towards first base.

"Come on Yoshika," Lynette said quickly. "Catch the ball before she gets to home plate!"

"I got it," Yoshika panted heavily as she chased after the ball. "I got it Lynette chan!"

Continuing to run towards the ball with all the strength she had, Yoshika continued run harder and harder as she got closer and closer to the ball. Even if Gertrud had it hit the ball very far and high, it was not out of the reach of Yoshika catching it. Determined to catch the ball and put the Karsland witch out of the game, Yoshika continued to sprint harder and harder until she got to a spot where she could catch the ball. But she never reached at spot. As she was sprinting, Yoshika noticed someone run into the field who wasn't originally there. That someone was Perrine, and she stopped right in front of Yoshika, in the way of the path that she needed to follow to catch the ball she was going after. Initially perplexed by what Perrine was doing, she soon realized something else that changed her focus completely.

"Perrine san look out for the ball," Yoshika called out frantically. "Perrine san!"

"What ball?" Perrine said as she looked up at the sky, initially not seeing the ball that Yoshika was trying to catch. However, it quickly came into view too fast for Perrine to do anything about, and instead of the ball connecting with Yoshika's glove like Yoshika had hoped, it connected with Perrine's face, sending the girl down onto the ground.

"Perrine san!" Yoshika exclaimed, dropping her baseball glove and activating her magical powers as she rushed towards the girl.

Sprouting the ears and tail of a Shiba Inu and attracting the attention of the other witches, Yoshika began to heal the wounds that were apparent on Perrine's face from being hit by the falling baseball that Gertrud had sent flying in the first place. Focusing all her power that she could and keeping her mind absolutely sharp, the power that Yoshika was putting forth allowed her to quickly heal up Perrine's wounds. As the other witches who were playing the small game of baseball gathered around to see what was going on, they were awed to see Yoshika healing Perrine so fast with her power. They knew Yoshika had strong magical abilities and was continiuosly getting better at them, but they had not thought they were as good as what they were seeing. But after a few seconds, Perrine was healed of the minor injuries she faced at the hands of the baseball and Yoshika watched in delight as she sat back up again, only to grimace at the rage that Perrine began to show.

"Okay who hit that stupid baseball that hit me in the face?" Perrine roared violently, ready to throttle who ever hit the ball. "I swear when I find them I'll..."

"You'll do what?" Gertrud said unemotionally as she stepped forward into Perrine's field of view, making the Gallian witch think twice about doing anything to the witch who had hit the baseball that collided with her face.

"Oh that's not the point," Perrine said quickly, calming down as she stood up. "I'm here to get everyone's help. Major Sakamoto is in trouble?"

"She's in trouble?" Lynette gasped. "How can we help?"

"Wait a minute," Gertrud said quickly. "How do you know the major is in trouble?"

"I have evidence," Perrine said proudly, quickly brandishing the calendar that she had taken from Mio's room. "I know something about this day is making Major Sakamoto upset and that's why I came here."

"Why'd you come here if you knew something about today was making Major Sakamoto upset?" Erica asked in confusion, not quite getting what Perrine was trying to say. "And where did you get that calendar anyway?"

"Didn't Commander Minna say it's against the rules to dig through the others personal belongings without permission?" Charlotte pointed out, backing up the sixteen year old Karsland witch's statement.

"Well um, I don't know what it is about today that's making Major Sakamoto upset," Perrine said sheepishly, earning glares from Gertrud and Charlotte. "But there is something here on this calendar that Major Sakamoto wrote down, but I can't translate it. I came here to have Miyafuji do that."

"Oh okay," Yoshika said understandingly. "I'd be glad to help. Let me see it"

Perrine then handed Yoshika the calendar, which Yoshika brought up to eye level to begin reading. Being a native of Fuso, it didn't take her long to figure out what Mio had wrote down on the calendar, but she was confused as to how this was making the witch that had brought her to Britannia to help the 501st. To Yoshika, what Mio had marked down should make her happy, not upset. In troubled times like this, it seemed only natural for them to gladly await for days like Mio marked down, and according to Perrine's claims that was what was getting to Mio.

"Well what is it?" Perrine questioned impatiently, making Yoshika lower the calendar down from eye level.

"I don't get it," Yoshika stated perplexed. "Why would Sakamoto san be upset by today?"

"Maybe if you told us Miyafuji we would be able to figure out why," Perrine proposed sharply. "So tell us."

"Perrine," Yoshika said slowly. "Today is Sakamoto san's birthday."


	3. Revealations

The progress keeps on coming! Busy times, took me awhile to write this, and I am amazed I was able to even find time to be be able to sit down and write _The Gift_'s third chapter. That's quite something else in it's own right if you even knew half of the craziness surrounding this previous week. But now I'm back with a brand new chapter for you people to read. Thanks for the reviews which are coming in a greater quantity then I initially thought and I always like them. Criticize the work though please, because it's always welcome and I am always trying to improve.

By the way, the only reason I'm not using all the honorifics is to provide a bit more realism to such. Hence why Erica said "Schlagen sie den Ball" (Hit the Ball in German) and Francessca said some of the things she said in Italian when she was eating breakfast. I didn't feel that even though the show is entirely in Japanese to really have everyone use Japanese honorifics, especially when only two characters are Japanese. It's just the way I try to write things, and I understand it sounds weird but I always go for a more realistic approach whenever possible.

So enough with the info and disclaimer shit. Lets get on with the new chapter now, shall we?

From,  
Symbiotic

* * *

Perrine could not believe what Yoshika had told her. Lynette could believe what she had heard come out of Yoshika's mouth. Erica could not believe what Yoshika had said. Neither did Gertrud, Francessca or Charlotte. None of them could believe a single word that came out of Yoshika's mouth when she translated the kanji that was written in the box that represented today's date. None of them could believe that Mio had taken note of her own birthday and did not want to celebrate it. To all of them, they looked forward to their individual birthdays. They even looked forward to each witch's birthday just because it broke up the monotony of sitting around base and waiting for the neuroi to attack. Though it had been awhile since they last celebrated anyone's birthday, it still would be welcome for them to have a party. The trouble was, was Mio really upset by the fact today was her birthday?

"I don't get it?" Erica stated perpexedly. "I mean, it's her birthday. Who doesn't like their birthday?"

"I'm going to have to agree with Erica on this one," Charlotte stated. "Who wouldn't want to celebrate their birthday?"

"That's the thing," Yoshika stated as she looked at the calendar, just as confused as everyone else. "Why would Sakamoto san not want to celebrate her birthday? It just doesn't seem right."

"What do you mean it's not right?" Perrine flusterly shouted in Yoshika's face. "It's completey right. Sakamoto san is distraught by her birthday, probably because no one ever recognized it!"

"But how could we have recognized it if she didn't tell us Perrine san?" Yoshika asked curiously. "Sakamoto san never said anything about her birthday coming up, so how could we have known?"

"You only know because you took the major's personal calendar," Gertrud reminded Perrine firmly, making Perrine swallow at the prospect of Gertrud telling Minna what Perrine did. "How else could any of have known if we hadn't dug through her room?"

"And it's late anyway," Erica said, looking up at the sun, noticing that while it was not anywhere near sundown it was still noon by now. "There's not much that we can do for Major Sakamoto by now."

Perrine felt her anger boil up at Erica's statement. She couldnt' believe that Erica had the nerve to suggest that they not do anything for Mio when it was her birthday just because it was late in the day. As she saw it, there was plenty of time to do something for Mio's birthday. Just because it was noon now didnt' mean that nothign could be done. In her mind, Perrine saw very much could be done. She envisioned a massive party, with all the witches gathering up in the base's main living room to celebrate Mio's birthday. There would music, dancing, food, maybe some games, to Perrine's imagination the possibilities seemed almost endless. However, Yoshika interrupted Perrine's train of thought with her voice, until Perrine heard what she had to say.

"No," Yoshika said quickly. "It's not too late Hartmann san! Listen, I know it seems like a tall task, but I bet we can do something for Sakamoto san's birthday! Maybe we did neglect the fact that it was her birthday, and maybe that is making Sakamoto san upset. Even if that isn't the cause of what is making her upset, I still think it is better then doing absolutely nothing for Sakamoto san!"

Perrine was awestruck. Yoshika had said what she wanted to say, but was too afraid to. One one side of her mind, she was a bit angry at herself and Yoshika. Perrine wanted to be the one to suggest to the other witches present that they do something about Mio's birthday. In a way it did make her rather upset that she did not get to take the glory for suggesting to do something if it was to happen and happen suggestively. That way, Perrine could have a greater chance of having her greatest desire fulfilled by Mio. That fulfillment of that desire only appealed to be growing closer and closer, and it was impressive to her that it was. But on the other side of her mind, Perrine thanked Yoshika for being the one to break the news. That way she didn't have to give any hints away, hints that she knew could compromise the nature of her greatest secret.

"I agree with Miyafuji," Perrine stated proudly. "We need to do something for Major Sakamoto's birthday. It's the right thing to do. She would have done it for you if it was you're birthday!"

"But Perrine..." Erica began to say.

"Don't you 'But Perrine' me you little slob!" Perrine growled ferociously, making Erica huddle behind Gertrud a bit in fear. "If none of you will do anything for Major Sakamoto's birthday, I'll just do it myself. God, all of you are so inconsiderate. You won't even owe the major with a birthday party for her. Fine, if you people won't do anything for Major Sakamoto's birthday then I'll do something for her by myself!"

With that, Perrine stormed off back towards the base, leaving the others behind at the baseball diamond, taking the calendar with her. All of them were a bit stunned by what just happened. They had learned that today was Mio's birthday, a fact that none of them had known before, and they had seen Perrine completely blow up in their faces about it. They had also seen Yoshika defiantly stand up on Perrine's side, something that they rarely saw anyone do around the base. Inside, all the witches were feeling a bit morose. Perrine had went through the trouble of taking Mio's calendar just to show that it was Mio's birthday today. All of them had not known that it was Mio's birthday today, and they all had thoughts now of being very inconsiderate towards the twenty year old witch who had become the first strike witch and valiantly flew into battle again and again when she was technically the most vulnerable out of all of them. All of them wanted to break the silence, but none could find the courage to do such. That was, except for Yoshika.

"I really think we should do something for Sakamoto san," Yoshika stated. "It is the least we can do for her to throw her a party."

No one spoke at first, making Yoshika feel that her words fell on dead ears. Not even Lynette, her best friend in the 501st and probably the best friend she had ever made, was saying anything. None of them could even bring themselves to say anything. Then in a surprise that Yoshika never saw coming, one of them spoke up. While she had thought it would initially be Lynette to do such, she was surprised to find out that Gertrud was the first one to speak up.

"Miyafuji is right," Gertrud stated firmly. "In some way or another, we all owe our lives to Major Sakamoto. I don't think there is a better way to show that we owe her and care about her then doing something for her birthday."

"But 'Trude..." Erica began to say.

"But nothing Hartmann," Gertrud said firmly. "We need to do something for Major Sakamoto's birthday. Don't tell me you can't recall one incident where Major Sakamoto didn't do something that she went out of her way for, just for you."

Erica began to think hard about that. Even if she was never Major Sakamoto's wingman once in her entire tour of duty with the 501st, Mio had done some things that truly struck out to her in particular. When Gertrud was often putting her down or berating her for various things, Mio was the one who often got Gertrud to stop, something that Minna was not willing to do most of the time due to sheer intimidation on her part. In combat, Erica had grown to hugely respect Mio, believing that in many aspects she was stronger then all of the witches combined here. Plus there was the fact that Mio was such an amazing leader and a valuable assett to the 501st. In her mind and heart, she knew that Mio had done very much for her, even though the two were not necessarily anything more then allies in combat. Feeling content that she had an answer, Erica then spoke up.

"Alright," Erica said slowly, looking down at the ground with a guilty look as she said such. "We should do something for Major Sakamoto's birthday."

"I agree with Yoshika, Erica and Gertrud," Lynette stated with enthusiasm. "I think it will be fun for us to celebrate Major Sakamoto's birthday."

"Yeah we probably can really pull something together for her," Charlotte proposed eagerly. "A real hootinany!"

"A great shindig!" Francessca stated with glee, smiling widely and jumping up and down in excitement.

"Sometimes I'll never understand you two," Gertrud sighed as she shook her head with one hand on her forehead. "But yes, lets throw her a real party."

"I think first though we should go apologize to Perrine san," Yoshika said. "We did kind of blow her off like that before."

All the other witches thought about doing that again. By the end of their brief moment, they all agreed with Yoshika. Perrine had done something that could have gotten her in serious trouble all for Major Sakamoto. None of them would have probably done what Perrine did just to find out what was wrong with one of their friends so they could correct it. Though it did put forth some suspicions and questions that none of them had ever considered before, they did all agree with Yoshika's proposal to go apologize to Perrine and agree to help her out with doing something for Major Sakamoto's birthday. It was the least they could do for both witches who they were thinking of at the time.

"Alright we'll get to that," Gertrud stated. "Miyafuji, don't you have flight training today with the major?"

"Yes I do Barkhorn san," Yoshika replied back. "Why do you ask?"

"Use that time to try to get something out of Major Sakamoto so that we can get some idea of what to do for her birthday," Gertrud ordered. "Also try to prolong your training for as long as possible. That way we'll have plenty of time. We'll listen on what you guys are saying via your communicator, we know how to do it."

"Hai!" Yoshika stated firmly, before running off quickly before she went to go to her training with Major Sakamoto. Meanwhile the other witches went to go find Perrine, and start planning out what to do for Mio's birthday.

* * *

Other then what happened with Perrine earlier, Mio's day had appeared to go by so far without any major problems. As she saw it, many other things could have gone wrong and she could have been feeling much worse about what was happening today then she was now, but she was not. That made Mio rather content on the inside. It felt good not to have to worry about her secret that she held about today to anyone else and no one was being suspicious about her. That made her feel a bit more relaxed then she did this morning. Still, Mio refused to let her guard down. Even if it was noon, there were still twelve hours left in the day when someone could offset her and find something out. That was a prospect that inside, part of Mio refused to risk. Mio was absolutely horrified by the possibilities of someone finding out the secret that she was witholding from the rest of the withces today. If it got out, she did not know what she would do about it.

But another part of Mio desperately wanted to let someone she trusted know what was going on. That same part of her also believed that she was making much too big of a deal over today. Even if for a variety of reasons she did not want anyone to know what was going on, she did think that maybe telling someone would alleviate the stress. I mean, it was only her birthday and as she thought about it, some of the reasons why she was worrying were pointless. Plus there was the fact that many of the witches had not done anything that was both fun and gathering for them in quite some time. Mio pondered that for a second as she stood in the 501st's hangar. Could they have fun celebrating her birthday? Could all the witches truly enjoy doing something that was not even aimed at all of them but at one person. Mio did not quite no, and hearing her last name get called out by Yoshika as she stood around made her break her train of thought and focus towards other things on her mind now, like today's training with Yoshika.

"Ah, Miyafuji," Mio called out firmly as she saw Yoshika run closer, "You're late by five minutes. Care to explain yourself?"

Yoshika stopped hastily at Mio's feet, panting heavily and holding herself on her knees just barely. She had sprinted all the way from the baseball diamond Charlotte had created in the field to the hangar just so she could be as timely as possible. Finding out she was late not only made her feel that she let Mio down, but also a bit scared of what could come of her training. Mio liked to have everything followed puntucally and Yoshika knew that from the very first day she joined the witches. Every time she committed even the most minor infraction within Mio's presence, Mio tended to unleash her disciplinarian personality to the fullest extent on Yoshika, and sometimes that was more then enough for Yoshika. Though she knew that Mio went well with her discipline, she was still afraid of getting the discipline and thought sometimes it borderlined on sadistic abuse, sometimg that scared Yoshika beyond physical belief.

"Gomen nasai Sakamoto san," Yoshika panted frantically. "But Minna san said I could play a baseball game with Lucchini chan, Lynette chan, Shirley san, Barkhorn san and Hartmann san. I knew I had training today and I tried to get here as fast as possible and left in a timely fashion. I'm very sorry Sakamoto san!"

Yoshika expected to feel Mio's fist come down upon her in a second or less, the typical way Mio berated Yoshika for various infractions as she saw fit. But instead of getting hit, Yoshika got something else. Inside, Mio did not feel like hitting Yoshika right now since it was clear the younger Fuso witch had clearly made a fully efforted attempt to make it to Mio on time. But what Mio did do was laugh. Starting as a pleasant giggle, Mio began to let out a whole hearted hysteria driven laugh, her signature laugh, out into the air for Mio to hear. Yoshika felt bamboozled. She had not heard Mio laugh at anything she did in a very long time. In fact, she had not heard Mio laugh at anything in a very long time. So the fact that she was laughing as she was at the fact that Yoshika was begging for mercy made the young girl quite confused, but did not ease her fears very much.

"Do not worry Miyafuji," Mio said as she calmed down from her fit of laughter. "Minna told me what you were doing with the others, so it's alright. I was actually thinking of going to just get you myself, but I figured I would first wait to see if you could make it. It's good to see that you're disciplined and committed to put aside your game and sprint all the way here for training. That's very admirable Yoshika."

Inside, Yoshika's feelings changed. She now felt quite accomplished, feeling good that she was able to do something that would make Mio happy. Yoshika had learned from early on, just as all the other witches had, that Mio was a rather difficult person to please. The fact that she had made Mio happy enough to commend her made Yoshika feel warm inside.

"Arigato Sakamoto san," Yoshika said respectfully, bowing her head in a kind gesture.

"Right Miyafuji," Mio said firmly with a bow of her own. "Now, are you ready for flight training?"

"Hai!" Yoshika spoke loudly and firmly, following Mio into the hangar as she waited to board up in her striker unit.

Put in place by the technicians and ground crew who helped man the 501st's base of operations in Britannia, Yoshika's striker lied in it's containment unit, ready to be deployed once Yoshika stepped inside. Climbing up on top of the unit and then stepping inside, Yoshika could feel the magically powered flying machine strap itself to her legs and grip them just enough so that they would stay on but not hurt Yoshika. With that, Yoshika focused herself and activated her magical power. As the ears and tail of a Shiba Inu sprouted from her head and rear end respectively. After grabbing her Type 99 machine gun in her hands, Yoshika looked over to see Mio prepping her striker unit.

She watched as Mio stood over the striker unit and just looked at it, further confusing the younger witch about what was wrong with her Major. She then watched Mio activate her magical power and sprout the features of a Doberman Pinscher before getting into the striker unit, something they were advised normally not to do for fear of starting up the striker by accident. But this time, things appeared to be different. Mio was not acting as Yoshika normally saw her act, something was clearly irking her, and Yoshika wondered inside if it really was her birthday that was bugging her commanding officer inside. Yoshika called out to Mio at this, quicly getting Mio's attention.

"Sakamoto san is everything alright?" Yoshika asked.

"I'm fine," Mio growled quickly, shocking Yoshika as she hastily got out of her striker's container and then moved out onto the runway, almost taking off without Yoshika. Yoshika struggled to follow in suit, meeting Mio halfway on the runway.

"Are you sure everything is alright?" Yoshika asked as she struggled to catch up with Mio and get into the air with her commanding officer.

"No one said you could ask me questions Miyafuji," Mio growled even more angered then before, making Yoshika gasp a bit. "Learn to speak when you are permitted to do so, not out of turn!"

As they continued to ascent into the clear blue Britannien sky, their weapons armed and ready for any sudden attack and their striker's carrying them forward through their magical powers. Yoshika began to increasingly worry about Mio and what was making her upset, wondering if it truly was her birthday making her upset. Driven by her own suspicions and the orders she had received from Gertrud, a witch she did not want to go back on for fear of facing the eighteen year old Karslander witch's wrath, she then spoke up.

"Stop Sakamoto san," Yoshika said firmly. "I want to stop right now!"

Putting her legs forward, Yoshika stopped in her place and hovered in mid air, thousands of feet above the English channel and the surface that she had been propelled over. Standing their firmly and clenching her gun even tighter to relieve the stress and fear of flying with an angered and distraught Mio, Yoshika watched as her commanding officer looked behind her and came at her quickly, clenching the hilt of the katana that she carried onto her back into battle time and time again. Yoshika gulped at this, but continued to stand firm. She knew that if she showed weakness, Mio would be allowed to berate her further and she would never get what she wanted out of the major. So she continued to stay hovering and look on as Mio flew at her and stopped right in front of her, keeping the hands on the katana hilt ever so firmly, and making Yoshika sweat in fear.

"Miyafuji," Mio yelled out loudly. "How dare you defy your superior officer! What do you think you're doing?"

"Sakamoto san," Yoshika gulped. "I-I demand to know if you are upset today about the fact that it is your birthday? Tell me truthfully and without any witholding of information Sakamoto san, and tell me now!"

"That is none of your business to know how I feel about today," Mio shot back at the younger witch quickly. "You are in severe trouble Miyafuji, you will be punished."

"I don't care," Yoshika stated fiercly. "I want to know if the fact that it is your birthday is making you upset?"

Mio held her position in thin air silently. Neither her or Yoshika spoke. The only sounds were that of the slight breeze they were feeling and their striker's humming in the sky. Both of them stood and stared each other down, not knowing what each was going to do. Inside though, Mio could feel an internal battle between her divided mind on the issue of her birthday being waged. One side of her wanted to tell Yoshika nothing and beat the girl senseless for defying her orders and not partaking in any of her training. But another side of her wanted to tell Yoshika what was going on and just get it out. Mio did not know which side to choice at first, struggling between her militaristic and disciplinary half and her more kind and caring half, the half she first showed to Yoshika when they first met. After much deliberation in the span of a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, Mio let her hands off the sword grip, and began to speak.

"Yes," Mio stated unemotionally. "Today is my birthday Miyafuji, and yes it is making me rather upset if you put it that way."

Yoshika gave Mio a caring stare and them moved towards her slowly with her striker unit so she could better hear Mio's words. Mio did not bother doing anythign to stop the girl. She had decided to tell Yoshika what was bugging her, and now that she had chosen that course of action there was no backing out of it. Swallowing hard, Yoshika listened intently as Mio began to speak to her.

"See," Mio began to say. "No one, and I mean no one, has ever celebrated my birthday. In fact, no one has ever cut anything out for me. It seems like from day one, as far back as I can remember, I've just been training and fighting. Honing magical powers as much as I could, helping and testing the developmental striker units and fighting the neuroi almost constantly. No one ever wanted to stop and do anything for me on my birthday. All they wanted to do was fight and defeat the neuroi, which I was proud and happy to do but I always wanted them to simply recognize me in a way more then another witch fighting the neuroi and a test subject. But I guess that will never come. I just wish that for once, someone celebrated my birthday."

As she looked on and took in all the words, Yoshika felt rather touched on the inside. She had never known anything personal about Mio other then that she was the first witch to fly a striker successfully and knew her own father, as well as knowing Mio's age of now twenty one. Now she appeared to know a bit more, and that made Yoshika feel more special and a bit more important then she had ever felt before. But she still was not done, and she knew what she had to do next for the major she was flying with now.

"Sakamoto san," Yoshika said soothingly. "It's alright if you're upset. I know I would be upset if no one celebrated my birthday ever. It's okay if you're angry about it."

"I'm not angry," Mio told Yoshika, a small tear coming out of her uncovered right eye. "I'm just, I'm just, oh I don't know what I am, I just wish someone would recognize today as a day for me and didn't think I was just some device."

"I don't think you're a device Sakamoto san," Yoshika told Mio with a smile. "I think you're my friend and a great mentor as well as a valuable combatant against the neuroi and a hero. I bet a lot of others feel the same way."

"You think so?" Mio asked, now looking Mio directly on instead of looking down like she was before.

"Of course!" Yoshika blurted out rapidly. "I know others about you feel the same way that I do. There's no other way around it! In fact, how would you like it if us witches threw you a birthday party today just for you?"

"Well," Mio said as she smiled a bit, leaning her head in thought. "Well it would be nice, but I think it would be too much of a distraction for us that we cannot risk right now. But if we could, I think I would really like having a birthday party. It's a nice thought Miyafuji."

"You're welcome Sakamoto san," Yoshika said happily. "I'd do anything to make you happy."

"Well right now I would be really happy if the two of us could just fly," Mio said with a smile. "Is that agreeable?"

"Of course," Yoshika replied back to Mio, watching her commanding officer smile and then begin to fly, Yoshika pursuing her all the way along.

"Hope I got enough for you guys," Yoshika thought in her mind as she smiled and flew along after Mio. "Lets give Sakamoto san a gift she will really never forget."


End file.
